Dublin Airport temporarily suspends flights over drone sighting

Flight Dublin, Feb. 21, 2019 (Reuters/NNN) Flight operations at Dublin Airport was temporarily suspended due to confirmed sighting of a drone over the airfield, Ireland’s largest Airport said on Thursday.

Ireland’s Transport Minister, Shane Ross, announced a review of security at the country’s airports after drone activity caused severe disruption at London’s Gatwick Airport for more than 48 hours in December 2018.

Thursday’s Times newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying police were investigating the possibility that a disgruntled employee or someone else with good knowledge of the airport layout could have caused the disruption at Gatwick.

Protests over killing of African American held in Dublin

Two separate protests were held here on Sunday over the brutal killing of an African American in the United States, reported Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE.

One was held outside the United States embassy in Ballsbridge, an area in Dublin where many diplomatic missions are located, while another was carried out outside the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland inside Phoenix Park, the largest public park in the country, according to the report.

About 100 people took part in the protest outside the U.S. embassy, said the report.

Photos carried by the report showed that people of different colors gathered at the main entrance of the U.S. embassy, holding up placards and shouting slogans.

Slogans written on the placards include “I can’t breathe,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George Floyd,” said the report.

The report didn’t mention the number of people protesting outside the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, nor did it mention the names of the organizers of the two protests.

Both protests were peaceful, said the report.

George Floyd was an African American who stopped breathing after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for minutes. In a video, the victim was heard repeatedly begging the police officers around him “I can’t breathe.”

The incident has triggered violent protests against racism in the United States, forcing curfews to be declared in many parts of the country.

On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Mac Donncha was forbidden from entering the country, due to his ties to the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which promotes boycotts of Israel internationally.

However, shortly after the announcement, the mayor confirmed on Twitter that he had arrived at the Tel Aviv airport and travelled to the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank for a conference.

Mac Donncha’s name was misspelled as ‘Mícheal MacDonncha’ with no space between ‘Mac’ and ‘Donncha’ on government press releases this week, though it’s not clear if this is the same misspelling that allowed him to gain entry.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement argued that Israel carried out human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Israel accuses the group of Antisemitism for singling out the Jewish State.

Furious about Brexit, Tusk calls for EU unity from Dublin

European Council President Donald Tusk has confessed he gets furious about Brexit, describing Britain’s departure from the EU as very sad on Tuesday as he used a speech in Dublin to call for unity in Europe.

The former Polish Prime Minister, who chairs meetings of the European Union’s national leaders, cited his dislike of Brexit in a list of things that helped him identify with the Irish.

Receiving an honour at University College Dublin, he listed his Gaelic forename as well as his love of rugby, Irish rock band U2 and the country’s writers.

“Last but not least, I don’t like Brexit, actually, that’s an understatement, I believe Brexit is one of the saddest moments in 21st-century European history.

“In fact, sometimes I am even furious about it,” he said to loud applause.

Ireland’s economic ties to Britain, which lies between it and the rest of Europe and fears for stability in the British province of Northern Ireland, have led Dublin leaders to call Brexit a major threat to Irish prosperity.

Tusk, referring to a shared experience of painful history in Poland and Ireland, said that after building the EU the continent was facing the threat of new divisions.

He however noted his own feud with the current Polish government and worries over peace in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

He also noted Balkan frictions, Catalonia’s dispute with Madrid, Greece and Cyprus’s problems with Turkey and arguments over irregular immigration that has put EU states at odds with each other.

“All we need to do is find each other again, count how many we are and reunite,” Tusk said, citing a Gaelic proverb that “There is no strength without unity”.

In remarks carrying a veiled criticism of his Polish opponents and of newly re-elected Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, both accused by critics of straying from Europe’s democratic values.

Tusk repeated a warning that abusing civil liberties would jeopardise unity and strength.

“Only a sovereign Europe guarantees independence for its nations, guarantees freedom for its citizens.

“It is important that we all respect our common rules such as human rights and civil liberties, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, checks and balances, and the rule of law.

Death of Geroge Floyd triggers protests against racism, brutality across the globe

Outrage over the death of George Floyd have sparked a wave of protests in the United States and beyond, with citizens voicing their opposition against racism and police brutality, as well as demanding justice and social fairness.

Chanting slogans while holding signs, thousands of protesters marched to Washington, D.C. on Saturday, staging what is expected to be the largest demonstration in the nation’s capital against racial injustice and police brutality.

After eight days of protests that ebbed and flowed in the district, people from around the country gathered with renewed momentum, streaming into the capital from nearby places such as Arlington, Virginia.

Tens of thousands of people in Germany demonstrated against racism and police brutality in the United States. Many of the demonstrators in black clothes carried banners supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. Organizers called for a silent demonstration lasting exactly 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the time it took for Floyd to lose consciousness as the police officer knelt on his neck.

In Berlin alone, police said around 15,000 participants gathered at Alexanderplatz Square, despite the minimal distance order during the COVID-19pandemic. In Munich, around 25,000 demonstrators took to the streets, but according to the police, only 200 people had registered for the event. The meeting area was finally expanded to make more space to allow demonstrators to follow the social distancing order.

In Hamburg, the police said a total of 14,000 people joined the demonstrations in two almost simultaneous rallies at Jungfernstieg and Rathausmarkt, but only around 800 were allowed because of the anti-coronavirus measures.

Thousands of people also went down on their knees on the streets outside the United States embassy in Ireland, which was the third of its kind following the killing of George Floyd, demanding a systematic change to the deep-rooted racism existing in America as well as in other places.

On May 31, a group of around 100 people staged a peaceful protest outside the United States embassy in Ballsbridge, while another group of people held a demonstration outside the official residence of the United States ambassador to Ireland.

One day later, thousands of protesters marched miles from downtown Dublin to the United States embassy where they observed a minute’s silence for George Floyd and demanded justice for him by shouting different slogans, including the desperate words of “I can’t breathe.”

On Saturday, tens of thousands of people rallied in Paris and several other French cities to pay tribute to Georges Floyd.

Minutes before the demonstration was scheduled to begin, and after a large crowd had already gathered, the news came through that the protest would be considered lawful, with police aiming to accommodate the demonstrators while maintaining peace.

One day later, thousands of protesters marched miles from downtown Dublin to the United States embassy where they observed a minute’s silence for George Floyd and demanded justice for him by shouting different slogans, including the desperate words of “I can’t breathe.”

The police brutality against Floyd as well as other African Americans in the United States and the delayed response of the judicial system in dealing with the four policemen involved in the crime have sparked widespread protests both inside and outside the United States.

During the third protest held in Dublin on Saturday, protesters took to their knees on the streets outside the United States embassy to express their anger against police brutality towards George Floyd and demanded a systematic change to the deep-rooted racism existing in the United States as well as in other places.

As Ireland is currently under the COVID-19 regulations, organizers had called for people living within five kilometers of the United States embassy to attend the Saturday protest while trying to persuade participants to follow a two-meter social distancing rule during the demonstration.

They even handed out personal protective equipment to those who took part in the protest, according to the RTE report.

Floyd’s death on May 25 triggered nationwide protests against racial discrimination and police abuse – some of them turning violent, prompting mayors and governors to impose curfews in more than 40 cities, while thousands of people have been arrested around the country.

In Minneapolis, thousands of people swarmed the city on another day of protests despite an 8 p.m. curfew imposed at the nation’s center of protests.

Time to reopen society faster not ripe yet: Irish PM

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday that time to reopen society and business faster is not ripe yet though the pandemic situation in the country has improved.

Speaking in a local radio program, Varadkar said that phases in the roadmap for reopening society and business will only be fast-tracked if the data says it is “safe to do so”, according to Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE.

Varadkar’s remarks came amid mounting pressures from various business bodies in the country calling for earlier reopening of their business than scheduled.

A recent survey shows that 40 percent of pubs and bars in Dublin are planning to reopen their businesses at the end of June instead of late July or early August as it is ruled in the government’s roadmap for reopening the country’s social and economic lives.

Earlier this month, the Irish Hairdressers Federation also called on the government to allow hairdressers to reopen their businesses at the end of June instead of late July.

“People are now offering to pay up to four times the normal price for a haircut on the black market,” said the organization, adding that both hairdressers and customers cannot afford to wait for such a long time as the hairdressers have been locked down since the end of March.

In a Thursday speech to the lower house of the Irish parliament, Varadkar said that the government won’t accelerate the steps in lifting the restrictions until early June when the first phase in easing the lockdown measures is supposed to come to an end.

“If things go well, it can be accelerated. But we simply cannot make that call at the moment,” he said.

The Irish government has announced that society and business reopened starting from May 18 in five phases with each phase to be reviewed at a three-week interval.

In another development, Irish Minister for Health Simon Harris said on Thursday that the reproductive rate of COVID-19 in the country has remained stable at about 0.5 for the past consecutive weeks.

The reproductive rate refers to the number of people infected by a virus carrier.

Ireland reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 at the very end of February. The government locked down the country at the end-March.

To date, 24,391 people have been infected with the virus in Ireland, 1,583 of them have died from the virus-caused disease, said the Irish Department of Health.

The report quoted health authorities as saying that of all the confirmed cases in the meat processing plants, 328 were reported over the last week, making such a place another potential hot spot for outbreaks of clusters of infections in the country.

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GAZA — The spokesman of the Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza said on Wednesday night that seven new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the Gaza Strip.

Ashraf al-Qedra told a news briefing held in Gaza city that the new cases are of Palestinians that had returned from Egypt last week through Rafah crossing point on the borders with the Gaza Strip.

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PARIS — France‘s coronavirus death toll increased by 110 on Wednesday, bringing the tally to 28,132, data released by the Health Ministry showed.

In total, 17,941 people remain hospitalized in France for a COVID-19 infection by Wednesday evening, with 1,794 patients in intensive care, said the ministry in a statement.

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BEIJING — Chinesehealth authority said Thursday that it received reports of two new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Wednesday, of which one was imported and reported in Guangdong Province.

The other case was domestically transmitted in Shanghai, the National Health Commission said in its daily report.

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GENEVA — Michael Ryan, executive director of the Health Emergencies Programme of the World Health Organization (WHO), on Wednesday warned against using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, the drugs for malaria and other diseases, in the treatment of COVID-19, saying these drugs should be reserved for use “within clinical trials”.

McDonald’s to reopen some of outlets in Ireland next week: report

McDonald’s will reopen some of its outlets in Ireland from next week when the COVID-19 lockdown measures in the country will be gradually lifted, reported the Irish national radio and television broadcaster RTE on Tuesday.

The report quoted Paul Pomroy, CEO of McDonald’s UK and Ireland, as saying that the company will first open six restaurants in Dublin on March 20 and then the rest of others across the country by early June.

All the restaurants to be reopened during the above-mentioned period will provide drive-through services and no dine-in services will be offered, said the report.

The Irish government has decided to ease its lockdown measures in separate stages starting from May 18 after it has locked down all the non-essential retail outlets in the country since the end of March.

Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed welcomed the decision announced by McDonald’s earlier in the day, saying that “McDonald’s is a valued key purchaser of Irish produce and an employer of a large number of people throughout Ireland.”

According to RTE, McDonald’s currently runs 95 outlets in Ireland and is one of the largest purchasers of Irish beef with annual spending of over 163 million euros (about 177 million U.S. dollars).

Besides, the company also spends close to 100 million euros on Irish dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter, and ice cream, said the report, quoting a source from the Irish Farmers Association. (1 euro = 1.085 U.S. dollars)